Facebook Launches New Tools to “Identify and Remove” Accounts Posting “Fake News” That May Target Pro-Lifers

This week, an announcement about new tools to stop the spread of “fake news” on Facebook has conservatives wondering if they will continue to be targeted.

Extra Ireland reports Joel Kaplan, Facebook vice president of public policy, said the social media giant plans to launch new transparency tools in Ireland and a new task-force to eliminate fake accounts.

According to the report:

‘We are working hard to build out these transparency tools and roll them out globally but it takes time to do this. From April 25 we will add Ireland to our pilot programme,’ Mr Kaplan said. Ireland will become only the second country in the world where the tools are used, after Canada.

A new taskforce will also be established to fight the spread of fake accounts during the abortion referendum, which were also used during recent campaigns in France, Germany and Alabama.

Mr Kaplan, a former deputy chief of staff to George W Bush, said the taskforce would use artificial intelligence to identify and remove fake accounts, which are often used in the spread of fake news, before they can even post to Facebook. The company will double the number of staff working in safety and security from 10,000 to 20,000 this year.

The censorship of pro-life and conservative organizations has been pervasive.

This is the message the group received from Facebook: “Your Page ‘Warriors for Christ’ has been removed for violating our Terms of Use. A Facebook Page is a distinct presence used solely for business or promotional purposes. Among other things, Pages that are hateful, threatening or obscene are not allowed. We also take down Pages that attack an individual or group, or that are set up by an unauthorised individual. If your Page was removed for any of the above reasons, it will not be reinstated. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in the permanent loss of your account.”

Barbara Listing, president of RTL of Michigan, urged the social media giant to be more transparent with its advertising policies and procedures. In 2017, Facebook also blocked her organization’s advertising account. It later reinstated the account after the news media drew attention to the matter

“We achieved no results working through Facebook’s customer service department and the Better Business Bureau. Facebook only appears to respond to media attention to fix what they claim is a simple mistake,” Listing said.

“Are these bans automated? Does a human being respond to questions from users? Does Facebook think they can get away with censoring smaller pages and users because they can’t draw attention? These are questions Facebook must respond to if they truly want to build community trust,” Listing added.

In October, Twitter rejected an ad from pro-life Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn because she mentioned Planned Parenthood’s sales of aborted baby body parts. Twitter later reversed its decision after LifeNews and other news outlets reported about the matter.

Facebook and Twitter have blocked other pro-life advertisements in the past as well.

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